YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

San Francisco Names Gay Leather Cultural District To Slow Gentrification

A Castro LGBTQ Cultural District has also been proposed.

Supervisors in San Francisco have unanimously approved a resolution designating the South of Market neighborhood as the gay and leather cultural district.

The plan to make such a designation, making it the city's fifth cultural district, has been in the works for some time, Supervisor Jane Kim pointed out ahead of Tuesday's vote.

“This social cultural district has been in the works for about 10 years, since the Western SoMa plan was first introduced in 2006,” Kim said, reports the San Francisco Examiner. “It took quite a bit of time for us and the community and neighborhood to put together.”

"San Francisco’s South of Market has been a local and world capital for Leather culture since the 1960s, as well as one of the city’s most significant and distinctive Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer neighborhoods since the 1950s," the resolution notes.

The cultural district will now have negotiating rights in future development and access to public money. The resolution calls on the Mayor's office of Housing to submit a plan within 12 months that sets policies to promote the area and preserve existing historic assets.

The creation of the Leather and LGBTQ District is part of a larger effort to slow the rising rates resulting from gentrification of the city.

The neighborhood is home to the Folsom Street Fair, a kink and fetish event that draws thousands each year. It is also home to leather bars, like the San Francisco Eagle.

The Leather and LGBTQ District will join the Japantown Cultural Heritage District, the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, and by the SOMA Pilipinas in SOMA, and the Compton Transgender Cultural District in the Tenderloin.

Supervisor Jeff Sheehy has also introduced a resolution to form a Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, saying he hopes to “further protect the integrity of this enclave from the many pressures that are facing our vulnerable communities due to a rapidly changing city, so that the Castro can continue to be the heart of the LGBTQ movement as it progresses well into the foreseeable future.”

Latest News